Short Stories
LIFE … NEVER A DULL MOMENT!
By: Donna Haug
During our first term as missionaries in Brazil, we had our share of ‘interesting’ experiences. Take a peek into my journal from those days and experience the joys of life in rural Brazil.
November 13, 1997
We’ve been having really weird weather the past few months. We’ve had lots of rain with very strong winds and with lightening striking all over. They’re blaming it on “El Niño”. People here are saying they’ve never seen anything like it. You never know from one hour to the next what the weather will be like. The day often starts off sunny and hot, getting muggy and overcast by noon and suddenly in the afternoon a strong wind blows in bringing dark clouds that seem almost green … then look out! The wind whips the rain every which way, drenching our patio with water and a few times our bathroom too! Hopefully Mark has fixed that problem but … weird weather. Then it’ll all blow away and clear right up again!
The lightening has affected most everybody in one way or another. We’ve fried our fax modem on the computer twice and our TV antenna is shot. Our phone lines were down for over 3 weeks! I’m lost without email! I miss my mom so badly! The phone lines came up again last week but not before the hard drive on our computer went berserk! It had to be reformatted – which meant we lost lots of stuff! We finally got it up and running a couple of days ago, but it was very slow. We knew something wasn’t right. We saved all our work on diskette just in case. Mark went to load the Internet program last night and … the hard drive went again. Well … sure wish we had some money!
Our truck was “out of commission” again for about 3 weeks. Mark tried to get the part from Paraguay but it didn’t work out. Finally we heard that a pastor from Novo Machado was travelling in Canada and would bring it down for us. Anyway, after lots of run around it’s back on the road again in pretty good condition. I’ve been praying that the Lord would “consecrate” it for service now and protect it from further breakdowns. It’s been one thing after another with this truck!
A couple of weekends ago, Mark’s worship team traveled to Novo Machado to sing at their Youth Convention. I went along for Friday night. Nair watched the kids for me. I enjoyed it very much. But what impressed me the most … were the beetles!!
Life was normal when we entered the church. During the service, I noticed a few beetles flying around the front, but they were ‘up there’ and didn’t bother me. After church while they were wrapping up, I had to go to the bathroom. When I walked around the side of the church building, I couldn’t believe my eyes! The corridor between the church and the gymnasium leading to the bathroom was well lit … and covered – floor, walls and flying everywhere – with tons of these beetles!! A moving carpet of 1 ½ inch long beetles!
I took a deep breath and thought, “OK, I’m brave! I can do this!” I wrapped my sweater snugly around myself and worked my way back to the bathroom, trying very hard to avoid crunching. When I got to the bathroom the doors were open, the lights were on and … you guessed it … crawling in beetles! I thought, “Walking through them is one thing … but baring my bottom to them is quite another!” I left as quickly as I could! I finally found another bathroom in the gymnasium where I only had to deal with ONE beetle in the stall with me.
Mark and I were talking late the other night about our dreams and ideas of what is in store for us when we finish our term here. It should be interesting. Our conclusion was … “God knows and has a plan … we’ll leave it with him and concentrate on doing the best we can with the job we’ve been entrusted to do.” Lead on, dear Lord, and we will follow!
Epilogue – little did we know that, after a 3 year interval in Canada, God would take us to Mozambique, a Portuguese speaking country in Africa! The adventures have only begun!
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